


One Last Time

by Sounddrive



Series: Leave It to The Kids [1]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Afterlife, Alternate Timelines, Archaic Laws, Canon Compliant, Canon Timeline, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, Immortal in Love With A Mortal, Immortality, Journey to the Afterlife, Long Absence, Mortality, One-Sided Attraction, Other, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:07:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23252197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sounddrive/pseuds/Sounddrive
Summary: At the end of everything, what is a magician of her age to expect to see when her time comes? Upon reaching the other side, who’s waiting for her? Is it her late spouse? Is it one of her dearly departed relatives, of which she’s rekindled relationships with?Oddly enough, no. It’s someone she’s met before, once upon a dream.[A fan apprentice Lyra Nguyen story, related toThe Path She Pickedseries]
Relationships: Apprentice & Asra (The Arcana), Apprentice & Julian Devorak, Apprentice & Lucio (The Arcana), Apprentice & Muriel (The Arcana), Apprentice & Nadia (The Arcana), Apprentice & Portia Devorak, Apprentice & The Fool (The Arcana), Apprentice/Asra (The Arcana), Apprentice/Julian Devorak, Apprentice/Lucio (The Arcana), Apprentice/Muriel (The Arcana), Apprentice/Nadia (The Arcana), Apprentice/Portia Devorak, The Fool (The Arcana) & Apprentice
Series: Leave It to The Kids [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1957813
Kudos: 16





	One Last Time

**Author's Note:**

> [Originally posted to tumblr on March 18th, 2020].

⁂ ⁂ ⁂ ⁂ ⁂

It's strange to see this woman, who was blessed with both luck and misfortune in spades during her life, being so calm in my presence.

She’s staring at me quizzically, blinking as she turns her head this way and that, trying to discern what sort of face I have under my hood.

“Either I am looking into a mirror making me look sixty years younger,” Miss Nguyen chuckles, raising a wrinkled eyebrow, “or you have my face from when I was sixty years younger!“

"I must admit I did not mean to wear your face from your youth," I tell her, holding one hand up, chuckling as I lower my hood with the other.

I am not that much taller than her when we last met; Miss Nguyen’s shrunk since then. Humans have a funny way of doing that when they go gray, fuzzy and wrinkly.

“It was an unintentional thing, I assure you.”

“You’re a funny creature.”

“Thank you, I do my best,” I reply, dipping into a sweeping bow. She laughs at this. Even if she had the image of a grandmother, her laughter still rings the same as when I first encountered her...

"I... I feel like we’ve met before,” Miss Nguyen murmurs, looking me up and down.

"Do you remember at all?" I ask, blinking as I stand upright again.

"No," the magician shakes her head, her silvery-white hairs gently loosening from the messy bun they were in. "However, your presence makes me think you're an Arcana. Granted," she concedes, shrugging, “I’ve only met a few Major Arcana that I remember in all my years. Some I’ve met with more than others. _You_ , on the other hand...”

Miss Nguyen’s hand dips into the purse-belt she wears around her waist. After rummaging around, she retrieves a familiar item: her former teacher’s deck.

It’s been so long; while the edges are worn and more than a few cards have been lovingly bent with all the shuffling, it is a beautiful deck as it ever was.

She remains standing, cards flying between her hands with ease, brows furrowed with concentration. Eventually, she stops, flipping over the topmost card.

“...The Fool,“ she names me.

I smile, trying to ignore the odd tingling sensations fluttering from the top of my head down to my feet.

I’ve missed her. I’ve missed her so much...

"Right you are."

* * *

“I... never expected to me seen off to the other side by an Arcana,” Miss Nguyen admits.

“You do know you’re special, right?” I counter. “You’re certainly not like everyone else.”

We’re having a lunch together. I promised her there was no strings attached with this arrangement: we’re just two friends catching up. We’re at either end of a table; she’s the one doing most of the eating. I never had a taste for anything she likes, but watching her eat is intriguing.

“Where did you go during all that time?” Miss Nguyen asks me, drinking some tea. “I mean... I eventually did figure out I had your body...”

“I don’t know,” I say, astonishing her. “Last I remember, I was with Asra. He was bargaining with me to help get you back and to screw over Lucio, and then poof!” I clap my hands together, startling some of the nearby fauna of my realm. “I am unaware of anything, until... about an hour before you arrived here?”

Time travels differently between the physical and the arcane realms. Who knows how long I was truly waiting?

“...huh.” Miss Nguyen murmurs. She fiddles with the remaining crust of a pastry, once filled with caramelized apples.

Strange, I thought she liked those. Before I can wave away the dessert, she holds up her hand,

“...Does it bother you?”

“Does _what_ bother me?” I reply, watching as she fidgets with her fork.

“That you don’t remember?”

I let out a _pff,_ shaking my head. “While I appreciate your concern, Miss Nguyen, I’ve experienced a lot of strange things. Blacking out for as long as you’ve been alive—after your resurrection no less—is novel, but not surprising.”

“It was quite the spell,” she nods, bemused.

“Yes it was...”

With a wave of my hand, I summon some more platters of food. She marvels at each one I put in front of her, taking a little bit here and a little bit there...

I could spoil her forever. I’m pretty sure I could, if it weren’t for the Laws...

"...you know,” I state, trying to drag my mind out of those thoughts, “even when we had met multiple times in the past, you never really let me know about your life. A lot of what I knew of you then was cobbled from a lot of guesswork. Still is.”

“Too bad I can’t know what our conversations were like then,” Miss Nguyen shakes her head, sighing. “I wonder what we talked about...”

 _Bits of your life you didn’t mind talking about. Why you came to Vesuvia. How much you struggled but you were so optimistic,_ I wanted to scream. She deserved to know. I could fill her head with my memories of her: how she was always curious, how she was always willing to learn something. How much she cared for the other meat-bags she called people...

“Maybe it’s a good thing you don’t,” I reply instead. “Not everything in the past needs to be remembered. Sometimes it’s better to learn from it.” I nudge one last plate of ice cream to her, adding softly, “I know I did.”

“You _learned_ stuff from me?”

“Is it that impossible?” I counter, my mouth quirked into a smirk. “As I find it, you helped to guide your spouse to better paths, to better choices.”

“We did it _together,”_ Miss Nguyen reminds me. “They’re the ones who changed for the better. They put themselves up to it in the end.”

“All _because_ of you, my dear.”

“Heh, if you say so.”

“You have quite the habit of underselling your abilities. I thought you got better with accepting compliments.”

“Being humble and being able to accept praises are two completely different things.”

“Is it now?”

“...You’re as bad as Magician.”

_“Hey!”_

* * *

When she’s had her fill, we take a walk together. As we make our way, creatures that haven’t seen me in so long greet me in excitement: they’re tackling me, they’re going up and down my cloak, they’re running circles around Miss Lyra and I...

In fact, I’m still amazed my realm managed to survive without my presence for all this time.

At the moment, I am currently being accosted by a certain bunch of creatures I would rather not have ever met nor existed with in the first place.

“They really do adore you,” Miss Lyra laughs as I struggle to get out from under a mass of fluffy, furry creatures. Their color ranges from white, gray, black, and a scattering range of patterns between brown, orange and yellow. There’s no discernible features on them beyond their round, furry appearance and the adorable sounds they make.

The last bit there, of course, is of the opinion of the too delighted grandma standing behind me, wickedly allowing the creatures to snuff me out with their cuddling.

“They’re _trouble_ is what they are,” I grunt. When I’m able to grab a hold of one or three, I fling them back into the trees. Struggling a bit more, I finally find the leader of this pack and chuck them deep into the treeline. I can hear a splash of water, and the sounds of drowning. The rest go after their far-flung friend, squealing in distress.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Miss Nguyen _tsks_.

“I was boiling under all that fur!” I shake out the hairs littering my cloak, grumbling as she moved to help me pick them out. I end up peeling it off of myself, beating the article of clothing against a nearby rock. Hairs fly into the air as cloak meets rock, the errant strands drifting down to the ground.

I stop when I realize she’s staring at me.

“What?”

“You got my face, but the rest of you...” she’s marveling at me.

I glance at what she means, and I realize the rest of me has remained the same from when I first popped into existence. My body is a solid, but I’m translucent. Visible within me are arrays of stars and streams of magic, constantly twisting and turning within me. Toward the center of my chest resides an opalescent sphere, gently beating.

“Huh...” Her eyes are still on my body, curious.

I have to take my chance and say it now. I _have_ to. It’s too easy.

I fold my cloak up a moment, standing so she has an unobstructed view of me. “You... _do_ realize I am essentially naked?”

##  **_“Oh for the love of—!”_ **

I dodge the shoes thrown at my head, putting my cloak back on before she decides to kick me in the crotch.

The few minutes of her chastising me afterwards is worth it.

* * *

We take a break under a shady area of the forest ahead.

Miss Nguyen’s tucked under a thin blanket I found stashed away in a false log nearby. A bunch of little, glowing creatures are settled atop of her, getting their whiffs of her as they rest from their activities. I’m glad they’re all careful to not disturb her.

I watch over her; even if this is _my_ realm, I know there are dangers to a spirit such as her.

Miss Nguyen’s a special case. At the very least, it’s my duty to get her to where she needs to be safely.

I know Scout is far ahead of us, getting things in order. Bless that little innocent, I wouldn’t be able to do this without her.

As I shift, the contents of my cloak’s pocket jingle. There are six disks; by themselves, they’re nothing much. What each individual disk represents however is one of the _six_ possible partners she decided to settle down with after the defeat of Devil.

Miss Nguyen will need to pick one of the tokens in order to pass on. From there...

Well, we’ll get there when we get there.

I’m envious of whoever her partner is... or would it be _was_? I asked her earlier: she didn’t remember who her Chosen was, or whether or not her Chosen died before her, but she knew she was very happy with them.

Whether or not they had children together is a completely different matter. We even had an argument about it!

_“I think I had one to two of them...”  
_

_“One to two? Shouldn’t it be one **or** two? You, you can’t have half a baby!”  
_

_“Shut up, my brain is old...”_

I didn’t dare to concur or disagree. I just laughed.

I’ll need to wake her up soon... but a few more minutes couldn’t hurt. She’s so peaceful.

Whenever she did fall asleep here in the past, Miss Nguyen curled up into a tight ball, almost like a dead bug. Her eyebrows were always furrowed, jaw fiercely clenched as if she were prepared to go into battle. Tension riddled her body like a string of an instrument wound too tightly, as if she were ready to snap at any moment.

More than once, I offered her a permanent residency in my realm. We wouldn’t be able to leave the realms of the Arcana, but we could visit the rest of the Majors, meet creatures no one from the mortal plane could dream of, and learn from texts that would have melted her brain if she were _just_ a visitor.

If she was willing to stay, forever, she’d be able to unlock that knowledge.

Miss Nguyen always declined. I never understood it; I still don’t. That’s what makes her... _her,_ I suppose.

I shift, stretching myself with a great big yawn. With the racket I make, she stirs from her slumber. The little creatures on her person immediately take flight, or scurry to the underbrush as she sits up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

“...How long was I out?” Miss Nguyen mumbles.

“Not too long,” I reassure. I glance to the direction we’re heading. My gaze meets with the beginnings of a slope in the distance.

For some reason, my chest feels too tight...

Getting to her feet, she gently pads her way over to my side. Looking to where my gaze is directed at, she asks, “We’re almost there?”

“We’re almost there,” I echo, nodding.

Arm in arm, we make our way to that slope.

The annoying clenching continues in my chest as we walk. I half wonder if this was what Miss Nguyen’s body felt like when she used to be all scrunched up in her sleep.

* * *

“Why is there a giant cliff in your realm?”

“It was here before I existed, or maybe it existed at the same time I came to be,” I hypothesize.

We’re still arm in arm, slowly ascending this slope. The incline isn’t too bad, but Miss Nguyen continues to hang onto me, lest she take a nasty tumble.

I am not ashamed to say I am happy about this arrangement.

We’re about two-thirds the way up when it gets too much for her. We stop off on a protrusion of the slope, just a few meters away from the very edge of this cliff.

The top of this rock mound is smoothed out, save for several sets of hand prints pressed into the rock. Upon their discovery, Miss Nguyen cannot help but marvel at them.

“Whose are these?” she asks me.

She had to fucking asking me. She had to _**fucking**_ ask me—!

“They’re yours,” I murmur. “They’re... they’re _all_ yours.” I take one of her wrinkled hands, guiding them over each and every hand-shaped indent of this rock face.

I tell her everything I knew that was related to those hand prints. When it happened, why she came to my realm this time or that time, how _long_ she stayed...

I couldn’t help myself, I really couldn’t. I try to keep the emotions roiling in my chest at bay—I really did my damnedest—but it isn’t working. They’re bleeding up, up from my crucible of a heart and into my throat, into my _voice_.

If you could color my voice with smoke as it billowed out from between my lips, it’d be the colors of pining, of the most forlorn love that someone could experience, of an immortal loving one that was _not..._

I’m so overwhelmed I fail to realize my whole realm is reacting with my emotions. I try to right myself, but I miscalculate where my feet are in relation to the jolting rock face.

“FOOL!” Miss Nguyen cries when I slip off the edge.

 _ **“AH!”**_ I thrust my arms out, scrabbling to get a grip before I fall to the ground far, far below us.

One of my hands completely misses it, but my other hand catches onto edge. I desperately dig my nails into the rock face, grimacing as ichor bleeds from my torn skin.

Miss Nguyen grabs my wrist before I completely lose my grip, but she is old. She cannot hang onto me.

My weight is going to drag us down and kill us both!

##  _**“RUFF!”** _

I gasp as a pair of paws help her yank me from certain doom. Before I can orient myself, the top of Scout’s staff swats me in the head, each smack punctuated with chastising barks, growls, and more barks.

“OW! SCOUT, _STOP—!”_ I plead, but I earn another five smacks to the cheeks of my face in return.

Scout’s giving me the chew-out of the eon, smacking some part of me if I try to make a rebuttal. Nothing is off limits to the reach of her walking stick: my head, my torso, my arms and _legs!_

“Scout!” Miss Nguyen grabs Scout’s stick before she can aim it a delicate place when I make a particularly disrespectful retort. “I’m for discipline, but this is too much!”

I’m afraid to verbally concur with Miss Nguyen. Preemptively I slam my thighs together, scooting away from Scout as the two of them argue.

Scout growls and yips at the spirit, gesticulating to herself, back to Miss Nguyen, and then the peak of this cliff. I can see the realization dawning upon her face...

I cannot go with them.

“Wait, what do you mean they can’t see me off?” Miss Nguyen looks at me, back to Scout, and to me again, confused.

“...It’s a preventative measure,” I finally explain. I get up, dusting myself off. I wince as my hand brushes over the marks Scout’s stick left on me. They’ll smart for a while, but they’re nothing in comparison to... to _this..._

“Preventative measures?” Miss Nguyen echoes.

“I’m not going to lie,” I begin, exhaling.

“Arcana can’t lie in general,” she retorts, a small laugh puffing out of her. I can only give her a small smile.

“Anyway...” I look to Scout, who waves me off. Thankfully, she’ll leave us alone for a bit. “...I’ve been tempted in the past to keep you here, forever. I like you a lot, Miss Nguyen. I like you enough to not let any sort of harm come to you.” I reach out, gently tucking away a stray hair from her face.

“I will admit I actually begged you to stay when you told me the Red Plague reached Vesuvia. You had a chance of getting it and dying and... well, we know what happened...” I shrug.

“Scout is going to take you to the top, and you’ll meet a door,” I add, fishing my hand into my cloak’s pocket now. I pull out the disks, presenting all six of them to her.

“One of these keys are going to lead you to your partner.”

“These are keys?” Miss Nguyen looks at them skeptically.

“Picking one will turn it into a proper door key,” I reply. “The rest I’ll dispose of.”

“...How will I know which one is right?” she asks, her aura warbling with anxiety.

“You won’t be wrong,” I reassure her, jingling them in my palm. “Pick one, and then you can go...”

“...hm..”

“What? What’s the matter?” My directions are clear, aren’t they? Even a human toddler—or wobbler??—could understand what I said.

She places her hand over my upturned palm, gently lowering my arm.

“Miss Nguyen?”

She exhales, her gaze momentarily to the side before looking back to me. “You still have my face.”

“...yes at this juncture I can see it being problematic,” I murmurs, rubbing my neck with my free hand. “Unfortunately, I’ve tried to reverse it on my own in the past, and with Scout’s help, _and_ some of the other Arcana, to no avail.”

“Even The Devil?” Lyra balks.

“Oh stars and moons, _no!”_ I shudder. I swear I can hear his menacing, husky laugh in the far, far distance. The choking smell of ash, smoke and sulfur irritate my senses, making me sneeze.

After the courtesy ‘bless you’—and I manage to not feel that dreaded unease anymore—I reply, “I may be _**The**_ Fool, but I am not _**a**_ fool.”

“Fair enough,” Miss Nguyen chuckles.

“What haven’t you tried?”

“I don’t remember,” I say. “We tried magic, pinching and punching my face in to try and get it to reform my original one, and other methods, but none of them worked.

“How about a kiss?”

My realm freezes with me. The Winds halt, and together blades of grass and the creatures of my realm are stopped mid-motion.

“W-what? I beg your pardon?”

“You heard me: a kiss!”

“Aren’t you a married woman!?” My voice is so unlike what it should be for an Arcana. Scout’s laughing her tail off, rolling in the dirt and limbs flailing in wild abandonment with amusement.

...I’m temped to zap that fluffy tail of hers, but her stick is not merciful.

“I am!” she laughs, “I don’t mean the kind you’re thinking though.”

“Oh? What am I thinking?” I stand tall, eyebrow raised.

“Nothing decent, at least in that head of yours. By my case however, I mean _platonically_.”

...

....

.....

_She will be the **end** of me._

I exhale. “Where, and... what kind?”

I still asked, even if I _knew._ I knew _intimately_ which one she was going for.

It was how she bade me farewell after our first encounter:

It was before she ever befriended Asra.

It was before she ever met Muriel, a boy forced to grow up in the most harsh, violent ways imaginable.

It was before she apprenticed under Julian, hoping with all her heart and soul they’d find the cure, together.

It was before she ever glimpsed Portia in the Marketplace

It was before she ever entered the Palace at Nadia’s invitation.

It was before she ever met Lucio, and wondered at his motivations for everything.

She’s silent, stepping towards me with her arms outstretched. Out of habit I scrunch myself down, so she wouldn’t need to strain herself. Her soft, wrinkled hands cup either side of my face.

As she observes my expression, my thoughts run amok. Could she see? Could she _see_...?

I close my eyes, dipping my head a bit further as she graces my forehead with a gentle kiss.

I feel... light. I feel so light a gnat could’ve easily knocked me over if it landed on me.

I open my eyes, and I know from both Scout’s and Miss Nguyen’s expressions I had returned to my former self. I’m significantly taller than her now, though I would still be shorter than Magician. They’d get a laugh out of this, I’m sure.

I smooth my hand over my too-short cloak, extending the fabric enough to cover my limbs. Reaching back, I tug on my hood like stubborn dough, widening the space in it. Once satisfied with the size, I throw it over my head. With my face fully hidden in the shadow of my hood, I offer her a grin.

“тнιѕ ιѕ wнy yoυ’re мy ғavorιтe,” I say. When I speak, I sound like I have multiple voices overlapping each other. Male, female, in between and neither, my voice never sounds the same from one moment to the next.

Miss Nguyen is startled to hear my true voice, falling down on her behind. Scout comes over, helping her back up to her feet.

The Innocent Guide looks at my closed fist, snorting.

I nod, extending my hand to Miss Nguyen once more. I open up my palm, and the six discs shine in the light of my realm.

“pιcĸ тнeм any wнιcн way yoυ lιĸe,” I tell her. “yoυ won'т go wrong wιтн any oғ тнeм."

She closes her eyes, reaching out to my palm. She feels the different discs with the pads of her fingers. Finally, she pulls one disk out of my hand and into her palm. As the disc transforms into a key in, I shatter the rest. I only needed to close my palm around them, crushing them down into dust.

The sound like glass breaking, but my skin remains intact.

A gentle wind breezes past us, ruffling cloaks, tickling through Miss Nguyen's hair...

Finger by finger, I let the multi-colored dust in my palm drift off into the four winds. They’re indiscernible from dirt, at first. The winds carry them off, going faster and faster as they leave us.

Once the particles gain enough speed, they explode into lights. They squeak and squeal as they burn through the air, joining the blanket of ever-shifting stars above us.

Turning back to Miss Nguyen, I see she’s drinking in the view overhead.

I wonder if where she’s going, they’ll have stars like these?

“тιмe тo go,” I nudge her toward Scout, not too unlike a mother cat coaxing her kitten to walk. “ιт waѕ a pleaѕυre тo ѕee yoυ, one мore тιмe...”

She surprises me with a hug, squeezing me tight. I reciprocate, laughing a little as her old bones creak. As we sway in place, arms wrapped around each other, I can feel my selfishness creeping in the back of my mind; it’s urging me to keep her here _,_ to keep her ‘safe’.

Reluctantly, I release her into Scout’s care.

“нave a nιce тrιp!” I wave them farewell. “ѕay нello тo yoυr вeloved ғor мe!”


End file.
